John Farrah

John Farrah, F.L.S., F.R.Met.S (28 May 1849 – 13 November 1907) was a British grocer, confectioner, biologist and meteorologist from Harrogate, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. In the late 19th century he developed the business strategy for Farrah's toffee shop which he inherited from his family in Harrogate. He was made a fellow of the Meteorological Society in 1894. He was president of the botanical section of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, working with Thomas Sheppard, George Edward Massee, William Eagle Clarke and Charles Crossland, and in 1903 discovered the mycological species Entoloma farrahi, which was named after him, although there has been some question as to its identity since then. He was a close friend of Harrogate historian William Grainge and for some years they were "constant companions", supporting each other in their work. The American mycologist George Francis Atkinson described him as a "great Yorkshire character". Farrah married three times, and had three children.

Life

John Farrah's paternal grandmother was Ann Farrah (d. 1843), a relative and assistant of tea-dealer Robert Hudson Swan (c.1810 – 11 May 1859), who started the family's grocery business. John Farrah's father was Joseph Farrah (Harrogate c.1807 – Harrogate 13 January 1857), a labourer and lodging house keeper until 1848 when he joined Swan's grocery shop and registered as a grocery dealer. John Farrah's mother was Esther (Pannal 1809 – Harrogate 11 April 1891). Joseph and Esther had at least four children: Ellen (b. Harrogate 1837), Maria (b. Harrogate 1841), Emma (b. Harrogate 1843), and John (Knaresborough 28 May 1849 – Knaresborough 13 November 1907). They lived in Chapel Street and Cold Bath Road, Harrogate, and in the 1850s they moved to 2 Crescent Place (since demolished) near the Pump Room in Low Harrogate. In 1857 Joseph died when John Farrah was 7 years old, so it was some years before John Farrah was running the shop, which was registered at 2 Crescent Place in 1873 when John was 24 years old. Farrah remained at Crescent Place, with three nephews who worked for the grocery firm. He had three wives in total. He married Georgiana Livingstone Forbes (c.1850 – Knaresborough 1880) in 1879. He then married Emma Coulson (1853 – Knaresborough 5 December 1888) on 5 April 1883. In 1889 he married Hannah Pitchfold (Sheffield c.1852 – 21 April 1896), and they had three children: John William (Harrogate 1884 – Knaresborough 7 September 1907), Constance Annie (Harrogate 1887 – 15 September 1915), and Joseph Sumpster (Harrogate 1889 – Lewes 1958) of the Royal Engineers. Farrah appeared in Court twice in 1880, the year when his first wife died. On the first occasion he was accused of trespassing on nurseryman E.J. Batchelor's land on Harlow Hill, Harrogate. The case was dismissed when it was established that Farrah was on a public footpath. On the second occasion he was suing labourer R.E. Sharpe for non-payment of groceries. A compromise verdict was given.

Farrah lived at a house named Jefferies Coate on the York Road, Harrogate, from at least 1894. He retired on 26 March 1900, so in 1901 the census finds Farrah as a retired baker, grocer and widower at Jefferies Coate in York Road, Harrogate, with his children. After he retired, his health was poor. In the two years before he died, he bought two farms at Felliscliffe, but they required his time and money, and took him away from his botanical work. Farrah is buried at Grove Road Cemetery, Harrogate. He left £26,254 (equivalent to £2,730,648.56 in 2025) in his will. Nine years after Farrah died, his son Joseph presented eight marble busts by William John Seward Webber, besides Thomas Holroyd's portrait of Farrah's friend William Grainge and some "rare manuscripts" to Harrogate Library.

Character American botanist George Francis Atkinson (1854–1918) describes Farrah in his 1903 diary of his visit to England. I never saw Mr. Farrah with his coat on. He is about six feet, two inches. Legs not very large yet stout enough for his body which is "sub" corpulent, breast broad, head large, forehead massive, but a little sloping, head surmounted, flanked and brought up in the rear by a heavy growth of long dark gray hair, eyes large, mild and appealing yet with humor hidden under the large lashes, chin and cheek with a patriarch beard for size, but of the same color as his hair, and a neck well constructed, the nose not massive nor puny but yet present ... Mr. Farrah always carved, now the hams, then the beef, one day at the end of the table, the next day at the other end. He always stood. When talking he would close the operation of carving, flourish his hands and arms, carving knife and fork, stand erect, his subcorpulent body not quite in contact with the fat so-called English ham, which he declared was imported from America (Canada) ... Many were the jokes he would get off on Massee and Clarke, and they often would get back at him. When they brought in some unexpected thrust at him he would appear stunned, would simply stare and make no reply. (G.F. Atkinson (1903), Diary of Trip to Europe) John Farrah, who would not be called "Mr" or Esquire", was both modest and forthright. Thomas Sheppard, in The Naturalist of December 1907, gives an account of Farrah's personality:

He was honest and straightforward to a degree that is rarely seen now-a-days. He hated deceits and shams of every description, and rarely was he so bluff and out-spoken as when roused by some mean action, or what he considered a high-handed or improper procedure. Proud of his county and of the characteristics of Yorkshiremen, he strongly upheld these, no matter in whose company. Anything approaching to cant met with his disapproval and caused him to express his feelings very forcibly. (T. Sheppard (1907), In Memoriam) Farrah may have been a businessman, but in certain respects he preferred the rural idyll to industrial progress: "The motor car [is] the latest curse inflicted upon the country ... I used to have a contempt for cyclists; now I am beginning to respect them. They glide along noiseless and stinkless, and comparatively dustless, and the tinkle of their bells is heavenly music compared with the horn of the motor". However, Atkinson is right about Farrah's sense of humour. Here is a footnote from his paper, "Flowering plants of Bowes": "It is called Honesty from its transparency. We can see through it. From this I conclude that it did not originate in Yorkshire".

John Farrah Ltd

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